keeping warm
maybe instead of ‘keeping warm’ the goal might be better stated as ‘keeping warm & comfortable’ this winter. it can be tricky to pick the right amount of clothing to wear without looking like ralphie’s little brother in A Christmas Story. admittedly, on the coldest of days i retreat to the treadmill for some hamster miles but more often than not i’m outdoors slogging my way through winter.
from november through february, i really don’t focus (much) on how fast i’m running. weathering a wisconsin winter is all about delayed gratification. running loop courses and donning multiple layers of clothing is as necessary as eating the broccoli and carrots on your dinner plate. (squash and sweet potatoes, not so much.)
once and awhile i’ll take the intensity up a notch or two…just for grins. i figure that if i put in the work now then by spring i’ll be a tiger…figuratively speaking of course.
1/14 – 7 miles
1/15 – 5 miles – AM; 5 miles – PM (treadmill)
1/16 – 5 miles
1/17 – 6 miles
1/18 – 7 miles
1/19 – 7 miles (snowshoe)
1/20 – 7 miles
1/21 – 7 miles
1/22 – 5 miles – AM; 5 miles – PM (treadmill)
1/23 – 5.25 miles
1/24 – 6 miles (treadmill)
1/25 – 7 miles
1/26 – 7 miles
1/27 – 6 miles (treadmill)
1/28 – 7 miles (treadmill)
1/29 – 5 miles
1/30 – 5 miles – AM; 5 miles – PM (treadmill)
1/31 – 4 miles
MTD/YTD – 201 miles (31/31 Days – 30 Hours & 37 Minutes)
Odometer – 37,739 miles
gunny highway
one of my favorite movies from the 80’s is Heartbreak Ridge. the main character is played by Clint Eastwood who takes it upon himself to turn around a group of underachievers in the U.S. Marines. he delivers a line when rousing them from their bunks in the wee hours of the morning…
“You’re Marines now. You improvise. You adapt. You overcome.”
uncensored video – NSFW (language) – 17 second mark
more often than not, ‘how’ you say something matters more than ‘what’ you are saying. in my mind, i can hear my grandfather (himself a Marine who served during WW2) dropping a line like that in a gravelly tone. needless to say, i would not be lingering in bed.
early january in wisconsin has featured some challenging circumstances to deal with. in a matter of days there were extremely low temperatures that haven’t been seen in nearly twenty years followed by freezing rain that glazed over roads and sidewalks.
when necessary, i geared up with an extra layer and headed out the front door. when possible, i opted for a treadmill or the brand new running track at the pettit center. when needing more miles, i added a second workout to the day.
while my efforts only equate to tilting at windmills, there is something to be said for taking the steps that are necessary to overcome.
1/1 – 5 miles
1/2 – 6 miles
1/3 – 6.5 miles
1/4 – 4 miles
1/5 – 4 miles
1/6 – 6 miles (treadmill)
1/7 – 5 miles (treadmill)
1/8 – 5 miles – AM; 5 miles – PM (treadmill)
1/9 – 5 miles
1/10 – 6 miles
1/11 – 5.25 miles
1/12 – 8 miles (indoors @ pettit)
1/13 – 7 miles
MTD/YTD – 77.75 miles (13/13 Days – 11 Hours & 36 Minutes)
Odometer – 37,616 miles
annual rewind
while i prefer to look forward, it can be valuable to look back once and awhile.
miles
with a little extra effort in the closing days of 2013 i was able to push my mileage total for the year to 2,600 miles which is a new record for me. (old record – 2,213 miles in 2012) my odometer is now north of 37,500 miles which gives me a shot at crossing forty thousand by the end of 2014.
racing
while i race sparingly, i’m still fairly pleased with what i was able to accomplish. improving my personal best this spring at the half marathon distance by two minutes was unexpected and gives me some hope for eventually lowering my marathon best as well. the highlight of my summer racing was schooling a couple of high school kids over five kilometers; although i wish i could have been a few seconds faster so i would have been sub-18 minutes. dropping thirty seconds or so off my fifty kilometer best this fall was encouraging as well but i still feel that i didn’t perform to the best of my ability on that day.
weight
over the year i’ve been able to slowly whittle myself from the upper 150’s down to the lower 150’s. without question, it’s much easier to race when closer to an ideal weight.
streak
without necessarily intending to embark on a daily running streak, i have managed to run a minimum of four miles daily for more than nine months now. the United States Running Streak Association defines a streak as one mile daily for at least a year so i’ve got a bit of work to do between now and late March of 2014. once past the officially defined duration, i’ll likely take a day off…which will make my dad happy.
12/20 – 5 miles
12/21 – 4 miles
12/22 – 5 miles
12/23 – 5 miles
12/24 – 5 miles snowshoeing
12/25 – 7 miles
12/26 – 7.25 miles
12/27 – 6 miles snowshoeing
12/28 – 7 miles
12/29 – 4 miles
12/30 – 10 miles
12/31 – 8.5 miles
MTD – 172.75 miles (31/31 Days, 27 Hours & 2 Minutes)
YTD – 2,600 miles (361/365 Days, 379 Hours & 27 Minutes)
Odometer – 37,539 miles
always through
it seems that winter arrived a bit earlier than usual this year. this past weekend i took advantage of the snow cover and headed out to a nearby park for my first snowshoe run of the season.
as usual, i ran a hilly one mile circuit over and over again at the park. it may seem a tad bit monotonous but after tamping down a path through the snow it is much easier (translation: faster) to motor along.
the challenge that i faced was a steady wind that constantly deposited fresh snow in my tracks along the eastern and southern sections of the loop. i was also having some technical issues with my music player, which only added to a general sense of frustration. i guess it is only after working through the rough patches that you can appreciate a return to smoother sailing because after fifty minutes on the loop i left the park with some sore quads and a better attitude.
the other weather challenge as of late has been the colder than normal temperatures during my morning constitutionals. while the line has to be drawn somewhere, it is usually possible to put on that extra layer of gear and take that first step out the door. for what it’s worth, i’ve been able to acclimate to running in negative single digit temperatures (fahrenheit) with the right gear on.
12/3 – 5 miles
12/4 – 5 miles
12/5 – 5 miles
12/6 – 5 miles
12/7 – 5 miles
12/8 – 6 miles
12/9 – 4 miles
12/10 – 5 miles
12/11 – 5 miles
12/12 – 5 miles
12/13 – 5 miles
12/14 – 9 miles
12/15 – 4 miles snowshoeing
12/16 – 4 miles
12/17 – 4 miles
12/18 – 5 miles
12/19 – 5 miles
MTD – 98 Miles (19/19 Days, 15 Hours & 13 Minutes)
YTD – 2,525 Miles (349/353 Days, 367 Hours & 38 Minutes)
Odometer – 37,463 Miles
globe trotting
while out for a run on Thanksgiving morning i was physically still in the friendly confines of the badger state but virtually speaking i was half a world away. back in march of 2007 i finished my first lap around the world (24,901 miles). fast forward a little more than six and a half years and i’m halfway through my second lap. it has got me thinking that if i could pick up the pace a bit, maybe i could finish that second lap on or before new year’s eve of 2019. only time will tell.
11/13 – 6 miles
11/14 – 4 miles
11/15 – 4 miles
11/16 – 4 miles
11/17 – 4 miles
11/18 – 5 miles
11/19 – 5 miles
11/20 – 5 miles
11/21 – 5 miles
11/22 – 6.25 miles
11/23 – 4 miles
11/24 – 4 miles
11/25 – 5 miles
11/26 – 6 miles
11/27 – 5 miles
11/28 – 6 miles
11/29 – 6 miles
11/30 – 6 miles
November Totals: 166.25 miles (30/30 days, 25 Hours & 33 Minutes)
12/1 – 7 miles
12/2 – 5 miles
MTD – 12 miles (2/2 Days, 1 Hour & 47 Minutes)
YTD – 2,439 miles (332/336 Days, 354 Hours & 11 Minutes)
Odometer – 37,377 miles